RCMP go through rigorous judicial process for spyware tech, Mendicino tells ethics committee

Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino told a House of Commons ethics and privacy committee Monday that the controversial program ‘Pegasus’ isn’t being used by any federal policing agencies and that any techniques they are using have to go through a rigorous judicial process. “There are rigorous protections in place prior to the authorization of this particular technique including application that must go to a superior court judge on the strength of a designated agent who puts forward a thorough resuscitation of the facts on which the authorization is being sought,” Mendicino told the committee.

• RCMP has used spyware to access targets’ communications as far back as 2002: Senior Mountie